430 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



cold plcices. Nor can cattle be fattened In the winter in the 

 northern climates, without warm and dry stables, and a full sup- 

 ply of food of the best kind. 



The cow should never be milked or suckled during gestation. 

 All the milk drawn from the cow at this period of time is fur- 

 nished at the expense of the growing foetus. Hence the calves of 

 the great milkers are generally feeble, poor and bad milkers. 

 The first-born calves are the best. Primogeniture in raising stock 

 is a law that works well. 



The number of milch cows in Maine, by the last census, were 

 133,556; working oxen, 83,893; other cattle, 125,890. While 

 the butter made yearly is 9,243,811 lbs.; cheese, 2,434,454 lbs. 

 The town of Bangor, on the Penobscot river, sawed and exported 

 in 1850, 200,000,000 feet of lumber. Vermont had by the same 

 census, cows, 146,128; oxen, 58,577; other cattle, 154,143; Mas- 

 sachusetts, milch cows, 130,099 ; oxen, 46,611 ; other cattle, 

 83,284 ; Connecticut, cows, 97,277 ; oxen, 59,027 ; other cattle, 

 114,606. 



Foreign cattle are not suited to the. New England climate, and 

 when brought into the country they are much like foreign trees 

 and grape vines. 



Solon Robinson — The gentleman has probably fallen into an 

 error, and taken the live weight for that of the weight of the 

 beef. To give thirty-six hundred weight of beef, an ox must 

 weight forty-nine hundred weight, or more, alive; and I don't 

 believe that this weight has ever been attained by any of the 

 bovine race. If it has been, it can be- again; and I will guaranty 

 to the producer one dollar a pound for an ox alive of that weight. 

 I hope the author will review and amend his statements before 

 they are published. I am willing to concede all that he is dis- 

 posed to claim, so far as facts will warrant, to the excellent breed 

 of cattle common in New England. I am well aware that the 

 best working oxen in the world, are the red oxen of Connecticut. 

 These are nearly all descendants, in some degree, of the original 

 importation of Devons into the country by Mr. Patterson, of 

 Maryland, of whom the Messrs. Hurlburt, of Litchfield county, 

 obtained their first Devon stock, in 1819. These were medium 



